Saturday, February 29, 2020

Earth Shaking


I’m not even kidding, the whole house shook.
It was ridiculous. I’ve experienced one earthquake in my life that I haven’t slept through and it was barely a vibration. This was way more powerful.

Seriously, dude. Turn down the bass!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Language of Confusion: Part II


Something about “Part, Part II” seemed kind of ridiculous.

Anyway! Today we’re looking at words that begin with part, which comes from the Proto Indo European pere-, to grant or allot.

First, party. In the sense of a party of people, it showed up in the fourteenth century, but back then it meant a part/section/portion, which is not something we really use anymore. From there it evolved to a party, as in a group of people, and it didn’t mean a party you throw for fun until 1716 (it wasn’t a verb, like to party, until 1922, which… yeah, that sounds like the 1920s). As for its history, party comes from the Old French partie, which meant a part or portion, like party originally did in English. Its verb form is partir, to divide, from the classical Latin partire/partiri, which means to share ordivide. That’s related to pars, part in Latin, which we talked about last week and is from pere-.

Next, partner showed up in the fourteenth century, although back then it was spelled partiner, which was also spelled parcener. That comes from the Old French parçonier, partner, from parçon, partition or portion, and that’s from the classical Latin partitionem, which, you know, partition. Partition itself showed up in the fifteenth century as particioun, from the Old French particion, which is another descendant of partitionem, pars, and pere-. We can also throw partisan in there, although it’s relatively newer, having shown up in the mid sixteenth century. It’s from the Middle French partisan, from the classical Latin partem, part, which is again from pars.

There are also part words that have dropped the T, like parse and parcel. Parse showed up in the mid sixteenth century as a grammatical term. It comes from the Middle English pars, part of speech, from the Old French pars, which is actually the plural of part, which means… part. And because everything about this one is super obvious, that pars is from the Latin pars. In slightly less duh origins, there’s also parcel, which showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning a portion or part of something. Basically, it went from a part of something, to a quantity of anything, to a quantity of goods in a package, to a package. It’s from the Old French parcele, and before that the Medieval Latin parcella and Vulgar Latin particella. That’s from the classical Latin particula, another word we talked about last week as being from pars and pere-.

How strangely sensible this one was.

Sources

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

From The Spamfiles


Are they a woman who looks like a god or a woman who looks at a god? Seriously though, what is this trying to say? Like, are they trying to say they’re religious? Or did they misspell “good”? Damn it, I’m once again spending way too much time thinking about this!

Which do you want, Colombian Beauty or Ukrainian Charm? Ooh! What about both? Can we do both?

Now, they used a “no reply @ gmail” address, so that’s actually believable. But then they immediately ruin it with stuff like a ® symbol just thrown in there, and then the fact that the salutation is just “Respected”. So close, guys. You almost had me there.

Come on, all you sensualist lovers and unicorns out there. Fun fact, a “unicorn” is a term used to describe a woman interested in sleeping with couples. Now you know and you can never erase it from your memory.

How… unsettlingly specific.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Ouch Again

This… really happened.
I suppose it doesn’t hurt as bad as the last time it happened for absolutely no reason.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Language of Confusion: Part, Part I

Yes, another multi-part series. And this one focusing on the word part! Considering how often I use it, I’m surprised it took this long to get to it. Buckle in, because this is going to be a long one.

Part itself showed up in the mid thirteenth century from the Old French part, which is from the classical Latin partem, which, you know, means part. Nothing shocking here. It can be traced all the way back to the Proto Indo European pere-, to grant or allot, which makes sense. You can allot a part of something.

Next, we’re going to look at a bunch of words that begin with part. Partial showed up in the late fourteenth century, just meaning not whole at first and then meaning biased towards one side in the early fifteenth century. For some reason. Anyway, it’s from the Medieval Latin partialis, partial, and classical Latin pars, which means part. That’s also where partem comes from, so we’re not looking at any major revelations here.

Participate showed up in the early sixteenth century, possibly from participation, which showed up in the late fourteenth century. Participation comes from the Old French participacion and Late Latin participationem, which means participating. In classical Latin, the verb form is participare, to participate. Now, the part from is from the already mentioned pars, but the -cip- part is from capere, to take, a word we’ve talked about extensively during my posts about case. So participate is “to take an allotment”. I guess if you’re participating, you are taking something…

Particular showed up in the late fourteenth century, from the Old French particuler and Late Latin particularis, from the classical Latin particula, which actually means particle. Yes, that’s where particle comes from. It also showed up in the late fourteenth century, and it’s also from particula. A particle is a particular thing.

How sensible this all was. I’m sure the next few weeks will change that.

Sources
Orbis Latinus

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

From The Spamfiles


Do… do people actually answer these? In spite of the fact that their email addresses are used in place of their names, and the bad grammar? I mean… they must fall for them, otherwise these messages wouldn’t still be coming. I just can’t wrap my head around HOW people buy this.

At least this one looks almost legit. The only red flag is the third party provider of the gift card “Mpell”. Because that’s totally a word.

 
 
Yes, I’m totally overwhelmed by the Ukrainian Charm. Mostly because they won’t stop sending it to me.

You have. Coffers aren’t usually picky.

It’s not often you get an offer for a new buddy. I approve. I also like how they say the persons shown in the photos aren’t necessarily users of the site, immediately followed by NO FAKE PROFILES.

No credit card requires girl will make first move.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Valentine’s Day


This is what happens when you go to the grocery store on Valentine’s Day.
The line of men stretched all the way across the store. Apparently it didn’t occur to any of these guys to make plans in advance.